Scimplify raises $25 million to expand AI-driven specialty materials manufacturing

Scimplify has raised $25 million in a strategic equity round led by Hitachi Ventures, giving the Bengaluru-based specialty-chemicals startup fresh capital to expand its manufacturing network beyond India.

Henkel and Teknor Apex joined the round as new investors, while Accel India, Bertelsmann India Investments, Omnivore and 3one4 Capital also participated, TechCrunch reported. The financing brings Scimplify’s total equity funding to $80 million, according to the company.

The startup is targeting customers that need specialty chemicals and advanced materials for industries including energy, electronics, semiconductors and defense. Its pitch is not simply to discover new molecules, but to move them from a customer specification into commercial production through a distributed network of partner factories.

Scimplify develops manufacturing processes at research facilities in Bengaluru and Hyderabad, then transfers those processes to outside plants. Its Scinode platform is designed to help identify production routes and suitable facilities while tracking quality and regulatory requirements. Hitachi Ventures describes Scimplify as a manufacturing company focused on advanced materials and specialty chemicals across energy, semiconductors and life sciences.

The company currently works with more than 500 manufacturing facilities, according to TechCrunch, and about 90% of its manufacturing takes place in India. Scimplify plans to build production networks in the United States and Japan over the next year. It expects to allocate about $7.5 million of the new funding to U.S. expansion and another $2 million to Scinode development.

That geographic split is central to the story. Scimplify is presenting its network as an alternative for manufacturers whose supply chains depend heavily on China or a small number of countries. But the company’s current production base remains concentrated in India, so the new round is funding the expansion of that alternative rather than demonstrating that it already exists at global scale.

Scimplify says its annualized revenue run rate has reached approximately $200 million, triple the level of a year earlier. Its U.S. business has grown to about $60 million on an annualized basis, up from $10 million a year earlier, according to figures cited by TechCrunch. Customers outside India now contribute more than half of the company’s revenue, the report said.

Energy, electronics and defense account for roughly 45% to 50% of revenue, compared with less than 15% a year earlier, according to the same report. Scimplify also says it serves more than 1,000 customers and has delivered products to more than 40 countries.

The company is working on tungsten derivatives made from scrap and on rare-earth materials, both areas tied to supply-chain concerns. Those projects illustrate the practical limitation of the AI story: software can help search for production pathways and coordinate suppliers, but customers still need qualified factories, consistent output and regulatory approval before a material becomes a dependable substitute.

Scimplify’s next milestone will therefore be operational rather than purely financial. The company must show that its model can reproduce quality across new facilities in the United States and Japan while maintaining the delivery times and economics that attracted customers in its existing network.